Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Six-Gun Gorilla comics inspired by British pulp hero in the pipeline

Two comics projects inspired by an obscure British Pulp hero published by DC Thomson the
1930s are in the works, illustrating, perhaps, the potential pitfalls of reviving "Golden Age" heroes in the public domain.

Six-Gun Gorilla was published in
Wizard, published by DC Thomson and written by an anonymous author in 1939. The only survivor from a circus train wreck, a baby gorilla is found
by Johnson, an elderly prospector,. He names him O’Neil and raises him, teaching how help him pan for gold, as well as how to cook, clean and
survive on his own in the Western wilderness, part of which involves
O’Neil learning how to use a revolver – learning it so well he becomes a
crack shot.

When Johnson is killed by bandits after his gold, O'Neil sets after them seeking vengeance.

The character is now considered to be in the public domain
in both the US and UK, as the serial's copyright
was never renewed in the United States, and 50 years have passed since
its publication here.

Earlier this summer, US publisher BOOM! Studios
announced that they were releasing a Six-Gun Gorilla title (Issue 1 is on sale in next month), written by Si Spurrier and drawn by Jeff Stokely. "If you haven’t heard of him yet, you will. He is perfect for this book," says Si of Jeff's work.

In #1, we're introduced to “the Blister” -- a bizarre other-world colonized by humans
sometime in the 22nd century, which quickly became a hotly-contested
source of fertile land and natural resources long ago exhausted on
Earth. In this new frontier, a rogue gunslinger and his companion wander
across a wilderness in the grips of a civil war, encountering
lawlessness, natives, and perversions of civilization in a world at the
crossroads between the past and the future.

The fact that said
gunslinger is a bio-surgically modified silverback gorilla toting a pair
of enormous revolvers is neither here nor there.

"I love Westerns," Si said of the project earlier this year. "Six-Gun Gorilla is the culmination of all my obsessive
theorizing and cultural sampling: a love-letter to the most beautiful,
most tragic, most self-fulfillingly-obsolete genre of them all.

"It’s is not about a Gorilla in a cowboy hat. It features a hole in the wall of reality, a mass-market tv-show
based on violent military suicide, a world where the laws of physics
don’t work quite right, and - yes. A f****** enormous primate with a f****** enormous gun. And wide shots. And high noon. And deals gone
wrong and war and death and frontier life and corrupt men."

The project sounds great and has gained plenty of comic press attention, although part of it, of course, is down to the fact that there's a rival project in the works.

The rival, which has yet to get a publisher, appears to be more in line with the source material, and is described by writer Brian Christgau as “A very big ape with very big guns blowing very big holes in very bad people.”

With a cover by Wes Huffor, Six Gun Gorilla: Long Days of Vengeance is drawn by Argentinian artist Adrian
Sibar, best known to fans for his work on DC’s Batgirl, Planet of the Apes for Dark Horse and more.

“I wish BOOM, Si Spurrier and his collaborators the
best,” says Christgau. “I genuinely do, but their book is completely
different from what I’m doing.

“A few years ago I
stumbled across the title while browsing a website about Golden Age and
Pulp superheroes,” Christgau says . “I heard that title and BANG! It
was like a firecracker went off in my head. Later I was driving to a
local shopping mall, listening to the Hawk the Slayer soundtrack of all
things, and by the time I parked I already had the entire story.”

“I
approached the story as Tarzan in reverse,” Christgau elaborates.
“Instead of a human raised by apes in the jungle you’ve got an ape
raised by humans in the Old West. The only thing I took from the
original story is the title and the basic idea of a gorilla stalking the
Old West for the outlaws who murdered his adopted human father. And boy
did I run with it.”

Six Gun Gorilla: Long Days of Vengeance is
the story of Kumba, an intelligent, sharp-shooting circus gorilla who
blazes a trail across the Old West in search of the outlaws who murdered
the man who raised him. Along the way he joins forces with his human
sister, the only one who truly understands him, and Union spy Giuliano
Schmidt. Together they uncover a much greater threat.

“What starts
out as a small, simple revenge story swells up like a fat lip,” says
Christgau. “When he sets out to hunt down the killers, Kumba and his
friends uncover a much wider conspiracy that extends far beyond his
one-primate search for vengeance, leaving the destiny of the very
country in his hairy hands.”

“It’s not campy, that’s for
damn sure,” says Christgau. “I really, strongly believe that this sort
of story is best served by being played poker-faced. It has a sense of
fun and adventure, but avoids the pitfall of self-parody. Comics and
movies have become too self-aware these days. The last thing I wanted to
do was slip into empty hipster irony.”

“Adrian
has a visual storytelling ability that is great at conveying atmosphere,
drama and a sense of the epic,” Christgau enthuses. “Most of all, he
invests his work with the one thing so rare in today’s comics: heart. He
gives the characters a real sense of soul. I fashion them out of clay
and he breathes life into them.”

“Wes’s
incredible covers show the book for what it ultimately is: a Western
comic. This isn’t a spoof or a ‘re-imagining’. This is a rootin’,
tootin’, two-fisted tale of one very pissed off, pistol-packin’ gorilla
on the hot trial to vengeance in the Old West! It’s got showdowns,
saloon brawls, heroic loners, horse chases – the works. I think people
are going to get a real kick out of it.”

Si Spurrier is non-plussed by the rival project. Like Christgau, he wishes him all the best with his version.

"I have great sympathy for Mr Christgrau because – yeah – there really is nothing
more annoying-seeming than being pipped to an idea," said last month. "It’s happened to me
more times than I can remember.

"I have nothing but good wishes for him
and his project: the art looks lovely and, hey, it’s about a gorilla
with a gun. Sold. But the important point (as he explains) is that his
vision for 6GG and mine are totally different. I’m no expert on
trademark or copyright laws so I won’t speculate about use of the title
(except to gently recall that comics with, say, “Dracula” in
the title are released by multitudinous publishers every year, aren’t
they?) but I see no reason both versions can’t co-exist, under whatever
name."

“If
[no publisher wants it] I’ll probably just throw the thing online for
digital download,” Christgau speculates of his version. “I’m old enough to remember
that in 1983 there were two James Bond movies that came out that same
summer, one with Roger Moore and another with Sean Connery. Hopefully
there’ll be room for two Six-Gun Gorillas!”

While it's all sounding wonderfully amicable, if DC Thomson decide to revive the character in the digital Dandy we'll really be having a Harry Hill summer of brawling gorillas!

The site downthetubes.net, which began publishing in 1999, is edited by John Freeman whose credits include editor of Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, Star Wars Magazine, and Marvel UK titles such as Overkill, Death's Head II, Warheads and others. He's currently editor of the upcoming Strip Magazine for Print Media Productions.

About the Writers:

• Matthew Badham has written features for Judge Dredd: The Megazine, the Forbidden Planet International blog and more

• Jeremy Briggs contributes news, reviews, interviews and historical articles on British comics. He is a guest writer on Steve Holland's UK comics history blog, Bear Alley, and has written for Comics International, TV Zone, Spaceship Away and Omnivistascope.

• David Hailwood has written comic strips for various publications, including TOXIC, Accent UK, Bulletproof and Futurequake. He also writes comedy material for TV, and regularly contributes to the Temple APA (a showcase for UK comic writers and artists).

• Andy Luke is a writer who draws: he's s created the eponymous Andy Luke's Comic Book, Gran, Absence: a comic about epilepsy, Hold the Phones, It's Alex Jones, and graphic novel, The Watch Thief. He's written about comics too, mainly for Bugpowder.com, and has been involved with the Caption comics festival in Oxford. He currently lives in Belfast with a large box of pasta and a 7ft tall cigarette, and can be found online at http://andy-luke.com and http://awriterwhodraws.com

• Ian Wheeler is a freelance writer who also edited the highly-acclaimed British comics fanzine Eagle Flies Again.